Question Without Notice No. 399 asked in the Legislative Council on 16 August 2017 by Hon Dr Steve Thomas
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
RENEWABLE ENERGY COMMITMENTS
399. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the minister representing the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the Labor Party's election commitments made by the now government to spend $19.5 million on a wave energy plant in Albany, $30 million on a solar farm in Collie and $30 million on a biomass energy plant in Collie.
(1) What will be the capacity of the wave plant in Albany, the solar farm in Collie and the biomass energy plant in Collie?
(2) What is the expected cost of production of the energy produced in all three proposed plants?
(3) Given that the government is on the record as supporting the previous government's position that Western Australia has on oversupply of electricity, and has announced the reduction of 436 megawatts of non‑renewable electricity by September 2018, will the additional supply from these election commitments result in the need for further reductions on non‑renewable energy generation?
(4) If yes to (3), which existing generation units will be reduced?
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. The following information has been provided by the Minister for Energy.
(1) The final details of the state government's renewable energy commitments will be revealed following an appropriate process to determine the best options to bring new renewable energy generation into the south west interconnected system in accordance with the commitments made at the last state election. These commitments will be implemented with a view to ensuring that an appropriate balance between supply security, reliability, safety and affordability is met.
(2) This will be determined on finalisation of approved projects.
(3) As per the answer to question (1), the total capacity of new renewable generation from these commitments has yet to be determined. However, it is not anticipated that these projects will have a material impact on the scheduled end of life of the state's existing thermal generation plant.
(4) Not applicable.